Call To Action

The tobacco control and environmental rights movements have often shared a common purpose and maintain a shared history. The clean indoor air movement that started in the 1970s aimed to ban tobacco smoking in public places and shared philosophy and personnel with those who fought for clean air and drinking water during the same era. The tobacco industry and its products continue to cause major ecological damage. The extent of this damage caused largely by unsustainable farming practices and product litter is detailed throughout the Tobacco Atlas. Moreover, finding solutions to these problems will require enlisting the aid of and working with those who advocate on behalf of our environment.

In 2001, a senior manager at Philip Morris observed, “Creating social value starts with the product; yet, except to the smoker, there is no perceived social value to our product. …” Tobacco companies tout their Corporate Social Responsibility and take up environmental causes such as the “Keep America Beautiful” campaign, but in reality this stance is designed to protect the value of their business.

[The tobacco industry’s reforestation] initiatives involved only fast-growing exotic trees such as cypress and eucalyptus. This means that the ecologically suited indigenous trees of the region were not replaced in places like Kenya. These replacement species were inappropriate because of the extra care and large quantities of ground water needed, leading to additional adverse ecological outcomes.

Sources

Farming & Vegetation Loss

Tobacco farming contributes to vegetation loss and climate change.

Clearing of land for cultivation and the large amounts of wood needed for curing tobacco cause massive deforestation at a rate of approximately 200,000 ha per year, and the subsequent release of greenhouse gases contributes to climate change.

“Cigarette butt waste is the last socially acceptable form of littering in what has become an increasingly health and environmentally conscious world.” Cheryl G. Healton (American Legacy Foundation) et al, Commentary in Tobacco Control, USA, 2011

Dangerous Pesticides

Common pesticides used in growing tobacco, and their potential harms As a monocrop, tobacco plants are vulnerable to a variety of pests and diseases, prompting many farmers to apply large quantities of chemicals and pesticides, which harm human health and the environment.

ALDICARB

Affects brain, immune and reproductive system in animals and humans; highly toxic even at low doses; soil and ground water contaminant.USA, phasing out by 2018. EU member states, highly restricted use.

CHLORPYRIFOS

Affects brain and respiratory system at high doses; found widely in soil, water, air, and food.USA, banned for home use in 2000.

1,3-DICHLOROPROPEN

IMIDACLOPRID

Affects brain and reproductive system; highly toxic to bees and other beneficial insects and certain bird species; persistent in the environment in soil, water, and as a food contaminant; contains naphthalene and crystalline quartz silica, which are cancer-causing agents; used in large volumes in agriculture.EU member states, two-year ban for use on crops attractive to bees in 2013.

METHYL BROMIDE

Affects skin, eye, brain and respiratory system; may cause fluid in lungs, headaches, tremors, paralysis or convulsions; volatile, ozone-depleting agent.Phasing out by 2015 under Montreal Protocol of the United Nations Environment Programme.

CHLOROPICRIN

Lung-damaging agent; high-level exposures cause vomiting, fluid in lungs, unconsciousness and even death; toxic to fish and other organisms; used as a tear gas in WWI.EU member states, banned since 2011.

CARBARYL

Affects brain, and immune and reproductive system; likely cancer- causing agent, linked with cancer among farmers; linked with low sperm counts among exposed men; toxic to bees and other beneficial insects and aquatic life; contaminant in air and water.EU member states, banned since 2007.